California Duck Days

an annual event held by the Yolo Basin Foundation. It is a wetlands festival held annually in February featuring birding field trips and workshops.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

California Duck Days, the annual northern California wetlands festival, is held annually at the Department of Fish and Wildlife's Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Headquarters in South Davis. This family-oriented event is organized by Yolo Basin Foundation and hosted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Duck Days officially begins with a Welcome Reception the Friday prior to the festival, at the Davis Art Center at F St. and Covell Blvd in Davis. Each year the evening features an outstanding wildlife art exhibit created by the high school students of the Yolo County, as well as a display of California Junior Duck Stamp art. The reception is free and open to the public.

There are over a dozen field trips to sites around the region, such as waterfowl identification, wood duck box building and dog training. There have also been special workshops with live bats and a falconry demonstration in the field. The Duck Days Exhibits have interactive displays from 20 area environmental organizations and features crowd-pleasing Mallard ducklings, as well as live raptors. Food is available on-site for purchase.

One of the most popular events at Duck Days is the kids' fishing activity. Children may fish for trout in the demonstration wetlands or in a special pond for young children and then have their fish cleaned and packed to take home. There will also be a large mobile aquarium filled with local fish, including many native species, for everyone's viewing pleasure.

The cost of the CA Duck Days activities for 2015 is $20 to $25 a person, depending on the number of field trips attended, and children under 16 are FREE when accompanied by an adult. All participants are encouraged to pre-register due to limited space on field-trips.

Duck Days is held at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Headquarters at 45211 County Road 32B in Davis, CA.

2012-02-18 20:16:12 Hi Constantia, I'm forwarding your question to the organizers at Yolo Basin, but I believe you pick up the physical tickets when you check in at the event itself. Let me get your question to the coordinators and I'll let them know that this isn't readily clear! —KelseyCondell

2012-02-18 23:41:20 @ KelseyCondell Would be great, yeah! I guess we won't receive them through regular (snail) mail anymore (because it's next week). There was this possibility to print the receipt, but there's really not much on it (it's almost empty). Thanks! —ConstantiaOomen

2012-02-23 15:39:05 I have received a very friendly and informative e-mail of Lori about the Californian Duck Days. Maybe it's good to post it here, in case somebody missed the e-mail or something:

February 22, 2012

Dear Constantia,

Thank you for signing up for a Yolo Basin Foundation event. You are participating in the following: